Qualcomm has made a number of announcements before the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. This includes the expansion of the Snapdragon Wear Platform and RFFE Solutions, as well as the enablement of first secure fingerprint authentication for WeChat. They have also introduced Vulkan API support for the Adreno 530 GPU. In addition, Qualcomm will have a live demonstration of its innovations in the field of connectivity at MWC 2016.
Qualcomm has announced the addition of three new original device manufacturers (ODMs), namely Borqs, Compal Electronics Inc. and Informark. They will reference designs based on the Snapdragon Wear 2100 SoC that was announced recently. The Snapdragon Wear platform consists of a complete suite of processors, software, support tools and reference designs that will allow the Qualcomm’s customers to launch a range of fully featured wearables.
The company will also be introducing a number of next-generation Qualcomm RF360TM technologies that will enhance front-end solutions in premium and entry-level design tiers. This will also include the world’s first 40MHz enveloper tracker, a comprehensive multi-tier portfolio of antenna tuners and antenna switches, and an RF front-end power amplifier. Qualcomm says that this will allow original equipment manufacturers the ability to build sleeker phones with superior battery life, call reliability and quality, data speeds, network coverage, and roaming capabilities.
Qualcomm is also the first company to support hardware-backed biometric fingerprint authentication for WeChat mobile payment service. This is enabled by Qualcomm Haven security platform’s authentication network. They have also introduced Vulkan API support on the Adreno 530 GPU. In addition, Qualcomm is also planning to introduce Vulkan support for upcoming 5xx series of GPUs, as well as existing Adreno 4xx series of GPUs. The company says that APIs like Vulkan enable more realistic 3D graphic effects and more efficient GPU computing.
The company will also be demonstrating a variety of its technologies at the MWC event. This includes industry milestones like breaking the 1Gbps mark with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X16 LTE model, and the 4×4 LTE MIMO in a smartphone. It will also be showcasing the future of LTE-based and 5G connectivity.